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By the time he’s driven to the farmers’ market, bought the organic veggies, and spent an hour of his time cooking a meal for himself and his wife, Mark Chernesky figures he’s spent $30. That’s why today, after fighting rush hour, the Atlanta multimedia coordinator is rushing in to Figo’s, a pasta place, for handstuffed ravioli slathered with puttanesca sauce. “I’ll get out of here for $17 plus tip,” he says.

Jonsson reports that in many cases dining out is actually cheaper than eating at home. An AskMetafilter user makes a similar case:

Is it really cheaper to cook at home than it is to eat out? My wife and I have an ongoing debate about whether, ultimately, you actually save money by eating at home instead of eating out. She says that you obviously save money because eating out costs more for the same things — buying and cooking some ground beef being generally cheaper than buying a hamburger in a restaurant. I, on the other hand, say that the economies of scale make it cheaper to eat fresh, well prepared food in restaurants than at home.

Depending on where you live, what you eat, and how well you cook, it’s possible that dining out is more cost effective than preparing your own meals. Eating at home also requires more planning and personal effort.

However, home-prepared food is almost always healthier. Most restaurant meals are loaded with fat, sugar, and calories. Butter is the cook’s best friend. And for many people — including myself — dining out actually takes more time than eating in.

Last year I calculated that I was spending about $80 on food a week, mostly eating out as cheaply as possible. I decided one week to go the fancy organic grocery store in my neighborhood and buy $80 of food to last me a week. What I discovered was that I could fill my cart with more food than I’d ever eat in a week and still have $20-$30 to spare! I bought the richest foods, the most exciting ingredients, and kitchen staples such as oils and spices and fancy olives, and still had some dollars left.

As an experiment, Rob Cockerham spent all of February 2004 “eating in”, consuming only food from grocery stores. He calculated that he spent $11.55 per day on food and drink. (If you subtract alcohol, he spent $8.65 per day.) He spent 48 minutes per day preparing food.

During March 2004, Cockerham ate all of his meals in restaurants. He spent an average of $20.08 per day. (He also left just over $1 per day in tips.) But it didn’t just cost more money to eat out:

The big surprise, for me, was how long it took to eat out. It was easy, when I was eating in, to whip up many meals in less than 8 minutes, but it was almost impossible to get my food that fast when eating out.

Ultimately, it’s important to find a balance that works well for you and your budget. It’s possible to dine out affordably, but for ongoing savings, it’s difficult to beat home-cooked meals. Eating at home is also healthier and quicker.

I’ve got 3 kids. My wife and I cook in 95% of the time, because for a family our size, eating out is absolutely more expensive than eating in. UNLESS, and this is a big unless, you eat crap like McDonald’s. Kid’s meals are insanely cheap and the 5 of us can eat for about 17 bucks. That is very cheap, and very convenient and sadly, many families rely on this option too often. McD’s is fine once or twice a month.

Eating out regularly is fine if you’re single-you only have yourself to feed and as long as you don’t have expensive tastes (i.e. you live on fast food, pizza, chinese takeout etc.) it can actually be cheaper than cooking.

Once you’ve got a family however, eating out gets expensive, even with McDonald’s. 17 bucks sounds cheap, until you find yourself spending it 3, 5 or more times a week. And what about if you do fast food for more than one meal a day? I’m sure I don’t have to run the numbers to show how expensive that will get.

I have one problem that cause my eating in cost to be close to my eating out cost: food spoilage. I live by myself and I am always throughing things away. I will by a small thing of milk, and use only 3/4st of it before it starts to sour. I wil never go through a whole thing of meat before the date. A month ago, I decided that I was no longer going to buy parishable food. I will eat out at places that have reasonable prices. (A $3 Sub sandwich, or a $2.50 slice of pizza, etc) I am actually saving money.

If you shop and store properly, it will always be cheaper than eating out.

You can always freeze meat, and shrimp keeps well in the freezer. I also pre-form meatballs and hamburger patties for quick use.

You can freeze berries, chopped strawberries, and other fruits.

You can also freeze milk: Just pour part of what you buy in a freezer container and freeze. As you get close to finishing the milk you’re drinking, bring out the frozen milk and thaw (in the fridge).

Bread, pitas, nuts, and other things can be frozen. I keep sliced bread in the freezer, and when I want to make a sandwich, the slices easily come off the loaf.

Every fall I make a huge batch of pesto (without the cheese) and make “pesto cubes” in the ice trays. Throughout the year, when I want a quick meal, I’ll cook pasta and add a pesto cube with some cheese.

I keep grated parmesan and romano cheese in the freezer. It keeps very well and doesn’t spoil. The only problem is that freezing dries out the cheese, so a bit of flavor is lost.

Not everything keeps indefinitely in the freezer. For example, be sure to eat nuts within a few months of freezing.

I’ve posted some great cheap places to eat at davescheapeats.wordpress.com, but even with meals at less than $5/person for our family of four it’s still cheaper to eat at home. Of course, eating out is also about the entertainment and relaxation(not having to clean or cook after a long day of work).

I thought anyone reading this might be interested in this..
I only had $50 for groceries this week & was able to make these meals – (I also had other things to buy, such as water, so I didn’t spend $50 on the ingredients, plus I had some things at home I didn’t have to purchase)

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The shopping list calls for 1 (15oz) can tomato sauce but there is no where in any of the recipes to use it. I made this as is & it’s wonderful. You can try adding the Tomato sauce to the “meat sauce” base if you like. I am sure it would turn out just fine.

Instead of 4 (28oz) cans of tomatoes, I think 4 (28oz) cans tomato sauce can be used, the original recipe was unclear, but this is another idea.

Part of the logic of “eating in” is that you have to be a “food” person. My wife and I are of the type that simply eat to live, NOT the live to eat variety. For us a quick and easy deli wrap with fresh meat and veggies and even a side runs us around $14 and takes 10 minutes to pick up on the way home. Buy a few steaks to grill out and a few side items at the local Fresh Market and you have $30 into your meal before you even get home.

For me the hour it takes to decide on something, shop for it, and then have to spend electricity (stove) or propane (grill) and the time it takes to make the meal AND the time it takes to clean up, along with the energy and time it takes to run the dishwasher, etc, the home cooked meal costs significantly more in total cost of the meal.

Perhaps if we were of the type that lived to eat, we would find the time was well spent. However, for us, there are times when we are both home after a days work and a hard after-work workout when we both just settle for a bowl of cereal, as the effort to prepare something more elaborate at 8:00 p.m. takes more time than we care to invest for the return we get.

I’ve been trying to minimize my expenses with dining out by dining less and cooking dinner at home instead. I also hate eating out with friends because they order multiple glasses of wines and the most expensive items on the menu whereas I split a meal or only order the appetizer because I eat often at limited portion. My share when I dine out is normally $10 – $15 with tip, but my friends per share are at least $25 – $30 each, so when it’s my turn to pay for the meal tab, I get a headache because my share is significantly less. Additionally, my friends are 20 years older and their annual income are higher ranging from $85K – $110K and I’m only in my 20s and make considerably less at only $58K, which means they can afford to eat out often, but I certainly can’t. I’ve often said no to their invites to dine out because it’s not practical.

To my calculation, the price of eating in for my husband and I is ways cheaper than that of eating out. For example, we bought 1 lb of shrimps at the Asian market for $4.99, added with angel hair pasta($1/box of 8 serving on sale sometimes at Giant), some herbs from our garden and an orange ($2.99 for a bag of 5 oranges). So that meal was about $6 – not including fees for gas, water to clean, soap, etc.. – for two people. It’s really really cheap because for $10 to $15 you have only 4 grilled shrimps (same size) top with some veggie – each person – at restaurants. Meanwhile, by cooking at home each of us had half of a pound which was about 10 shrimps.

The only problem of eating in with us is that we usually cook too much and too well so we usually eat a lot and gain weights.

We are a family of 5 & for us eating out is definately more expensive… unless we do something like Papa Murphys pizza or Little Ceasars. When we want pizza now instead of spending $40 we go to Little Ceasar’s pizza & spend $17 for 2 pizzas & bread sticks! We can’t even get one pizza from Round Table for that, even with a coupon. If we do go out we make sure we box up left overs & have our small girls share a kids meal.

My boyfriend and I enjoy cooking. We look up recipes, watch the Food Network and try new things. It’s much, much cheaper for us to buy the ingredients and spend quality time together at home cooking — and most often, our food tastes better than pricey restaurant fare. Another bonus? Leftovers! We’re not talking lobster or fancy desserts — pasta, casseroles, fish, etc.

If you hate cooking and manage to burn canned soup, this might not be the best option. But — if you can read, you can cook. Or, invite a friend over who loves to cook. I did that and learned a few skills.

I also think it depends on the ingredients you use. For example compare an egg salad sandwich to a turkey sandwich. Most places charge about the same amount of money for both. But I can make an egg salad sandwich at home a lot cheaper than turkey, especially if I’m not willing to use the cheapest pressed turkey circles.

i think it largely depends on where you live. more than you think. i used to live in santa cruz, california. i took my then girlfriend to a very nice white table cloth dinner candlelit and everything on the wharf which of course adds to the expense. we shared a delicious appetizer, followed by two wonderful pasta entrees and split a dessert. we both got soft drinks with. tip included this entire meal cost me just over $40. i was blown away and totally stoked.

since then i have moved several times and now live in santa monica, Ca. i went to a local casual place with my current gf. nothing fancy or awesome just taking her out to dinner at a fairly average spot. i spent $70! not going back there again. it sure wasnt worth that. you know what i could get at costco for $70? all the staples but none of the ingredients unfortunately. speaking of ingredients…

i recently acquired a recipe for a cole slaw i really liked growing up. cole slaw is cheap right? thats what i thought. WRONG. i already had the mayonnaise, the vinegar, and some other things and i still didnt make it out of the store without spending $50. $50!!!!!! FOR COLE SLAW!!!! i’ll admit it was the best cole slaw ever but still. its not worth $50 for christ’s sake. i could have bought out their selection on pre made cole slaw for less than half that.

Chances are, if you already pose this question, then eating in is cheaper. If the question doesn’t come up – you have an hourly salary where spending on food is just not an issue, and your debate is whether to cook organic imported specialties at home or to eat the same thing at a gourmet restaurant, then eating out is cheaper for you, simply because of the time it saves. Oh yeah, and it helps to live in a real city, like NYC or Barcelona, rather than in the ‘burbs, where you have to drive somewhere to eat.

I read this article because today, a Sunday, I went out for brunch at a trendy local restaurant. I have been eating 100% vegan (again) and mostly raw (90%) for a few weeks and frankly, I’m sick of kale and sick of ingredients going bad in my fridge because really, how much cilantro can one person eat in a week?

The restaurant I went to (I live in LA)serves an excellent selection of vegan food for $5.25 per pound. Sitting there eating, I realized that had I bought a sweet potato, 1 Brussels sprout, 1 apple and all the various ingredients it might have cost less but would have mostly gone to waste, because I just cannot consume so many fresh items before they spoil. And if I make a big batch of anything (the normal recipe size is for 4-6 people) I’ll be sick of it long before it is gone.

So for me, I realized if I go to this place two times a week for variety, take home one portion each time, eat all of what I buy, and supplement with organic fruits and veg twice a week (no kale!!!) I’ll be eating happier and healthier with less waste and less cost.

I recognize other vegans/raw foodies who don’t live in urban areas will have a different dilemma, but this will work for me. This article gave me great insight! Thanks!

I go to an all you can eat buffet that has a carry out option of $3.99 a pound they have baked Salmon and fresh veggies and fruit plus other items that cannot be purchased at that price in the supermarket

I believe it depends each state wise has ups and downs on food prices. The best way to judge would be to calculate mileage it takes to drive to grocery store and back, ingredients calculation, labour, time, electricity, water…note the mathematic calculation then compare it with the restaurant of similar product. Try all different types of products you surely will get your answer I know I did!

I’m so interested in this exact study. I can easily say when I don’t buy groceries, I spend less eating out. Bad part is, it’s unhealthy food. My son & I can make a pizza deal last 4-6 meals & they’re usually around $20. I’ve been watching my grocery tab & my food cost plus waste is astronomical. Its not very motivating when I spend so much time cooking, cleaning up, & going to the store. To me, the cost of convenience or the time it takes from my life should be deducted in cost. I usually use my own hourly pay for this calculation.

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